


Almost like Sound

by anr



Category: Jericho (US 2006)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-03-10
Updated: 2008-03-10
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anr/pseuds/anr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louder than any words.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost like Sound

**Author's Note:**

> _Oversight_ (2x04).

"They're coming," she says into the silence.

She doesn't hear a thing.

  


* * *

  


She is five years old the first time she feels thunder, feels the echo of it deep within her bones, waking her in the dead of the night.

  


* * *

  


Once:

Dale sat next to her at lunch, his shadow stretching out across the tabletop and blending into hers.

Skylar invited every girl at school to her eighth birthday party except her.

Sean held her hand as they walked through the fields, searching for food.

Doctor Greene gave her an ice cream after she'd fixed her broken arm, even though she'd cried.

Jake brought her home, after she'd tried to run away.

  


* * *

  


_StanleyStanleyStanley!_

The silence is terrifying like never before, with bright flashes of lightning cutting the sky outside her window, and cracks of thunder that she can feel, louder than any words.

She doesn't see him enter her room, but his body is warm as he gathers her into his arms, pulling her from the tangle of bedclothes. His breath brushes her forehead; wordless soothing.

  


* * *

  


Mimi is the only person -- aside from Stanley -- who has ever treated her as both a child and an adult, and loved her like it didn't matter which she was on the day.

That's why she's family now.

  


* * *

  


And underneath the echoes, Stanley's heartbeat is against her back, steady and strong and familiar.

She never knew she could hear like that.

  


* * *

  


She remembers her parents through Stanley, through his stories and jokes, his smiles and tears. When he yells at her, loves her, he is her brother, her father, her mother.

Disney bandaids on her knees and pigtails in her hair. Learning how to husk corn, bake pies, tie her shoelaces, shoot and swim and ride a bike, drive a car. Her nine times tables and PB and J sandwiches every night for a week when she had the chicken pox. 

He is the first word she ever learnt to sign; she'd give everything for him and his.

He is all she ever remembers.

  


* * *

  


Stanley's lips move on her temple, distracting her from the storm outside, and she doesn't need to look to know what he's saying, can hear it in his heartbeat.

_It's alright, it's alright, it's okay..._

  


* * *

  


The shotgun feels like thunder in her arms, feels like Stanley when she was five and scared and alone in her silence, the sky breaking outside and shaking her to the core... his heartbeat behind hers, almost like sound.

Three shells, four...

  


* * *

  


_... I've got you._

  


* * *

  


... five.

She can hear.

  


* * *

The End

**Author's Note:**

> ORIGINAL URL: <http://anr.livejournal.com/307022.html>


End file.
